The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-05
In the House.

.
Huffs bill to provide for permanent, peni-
tentiary and supply farm, was resumed,
with Mr.. Huff on the floor He read the
act of 1875 authorizing the lease of the con
victs Gov Brown holds that the decision
of Judge Stewart when he rendered it from
the Supreme Court in relation to the con
vfcts of the Marietta and North Georgia
road, said that the lessees had vested rights.
This was a suit between the lessees and the
owners of the Marietta and North Georgia
railroad. Judge Stewart in his decision
says the State can change its system. The
original lease act provided for principal
keeper principal physician and a chaplain,
the services of which were to cost 81 500 and
now the cost has reached $4,000. "When ]
asked Gov. Brown if there had
been any further legislation on the subject
he said that there had been nothing except
in the instance where Capt. Lowe tried to
have an amendment passed which was hui
name in its nature, and Gov. Brown. with
face as cold as an icicle, looked me in the
face, while on the witness stand and stated
that the State had robbed him. Can you
imagine such thing, the State robbing Joe
Brown. When think of this there come TO
my mind the sweat boxes at Columbus, the
cotton shipping from Wilmington, and Gov.
Brown working hundreds of convicts in
that hell hole of his in Dade county as his
SUPERINTENDENT calls it, Mr. Huff said that
when he referred to this lease being fraud
and swindle he did not mean to reflect
upon the men who drew it. He thought
their motives were good. 1t was the system
that he referred to in that way.
DRUNKEN GUARDS.
He wished that the whole Legislature
could have seen the whipping bosses that
were brought up TO testify before Gov
Gordon few days ago, so drunk that they
had to be hustled out without giving in
their testimony, and had to be sobered ul
before they could go on the stand. The
system of appointing bosses is such that
the Governor appoints many that he has
never seen. Judge Reese says that he had
charge of the bill in the Senate, and Tin
Farlow in the House His idea was human
ity and to provide a system for temporarily
disposing of the convicts. The men
who helped TO fix up the bill wanted
to close the thing up for twenty years, SO as
to shut out any other bidders. There was a
man louuging around Atlanta who wanted
TO be Senator, and another who wanted to
be Governor, and it took thenf long time
to decide whether they would be lessee, or
a Senator or Governor. One of them was a
Senator at the time The convicts' camps
are now scattered over the State, making ii
impossible for Mr.. Shubrick to spend as
much as a half day at a time at any
one of them. L this thing is al
lowed to continue, there will be
forty camps in a few years, and the whole
So, 900 win be used in looking after the con
victs The author of the lease act says that
his idea was to concentrate the convicts at
one place. and we see to-day how this idea
is carried out. Judge Reese says that it was
intended that the convicts should be kept at
one camp. There should be but one. II
two camps were necessary, then two should
be created. He says that if the convicts
are scattered, then it is perversion of the
lease act.
Judge Reese says in his letter that the
lessees shall be bona fide residents of Geor-
gia, and Gov. Brown told me, and i'll tell
any member of the House, that a : eniten-
tiary company in Georgia is an artificial
prison, and that residents of other States
can own and control the convicts and have
them looked after by agents residing here.
When Judge Reese wrote the act he GER
tainly knew what he was writing about,
what he means The man who
writes anything certainly should
know best what he means, and yet Senator
Brown gets up before Gov. Gordon and
tells him that the act means something else.
Mr. Huff said a member on this floor drew a
beautiful picture of what DIR. Felton's re
formatory prison would look like. He
pictured il as place of elegance, ease and
leisure
SUGGESTIVE IMPROVEMENTS.
If he would go out on Peachtree street he
would see the halls of the convict lessees
surrounded with blue grass flowers, statu-
ary and high art. There stands the palatial
residence OF w. d. Grant. Now, how did they
get their palatial residencesg They got them
by working convicts at SC. per day, and not
stopping for Sunday Why, Col. Nelms
testified that when w. ID. Grant wanted 70
move a convict camp from Marietta to
Gainesville he started them across the coun-
try to walk distance Of forty miles on
Sunday He could not afford to lose even
Is much as Be- a daY That Is how he got